The very first time I launched Jewellust I immediately recognized the games similarity in appearance to Bejeweled with a grid style gameboard and various colored pieces. However this version of the game took those pieces one step further offering various shapes and designs that look more like real jewels than simple similar shaped parts.
My game score, time and bonus pieces were also well displayed, making it simple to navigate around the screen. While navigation was also made easy by jewel's that were decently sized, allowing for simple pressing of each object with my finger, an important aspect on the touch friendly Android Operating System.
Jewellust also offers a good amount of powerups (bonuses) that can help you during play such as a horizontal blast to take out a column, a vertical blast to take out a row, a bomb blast which destroys a 3 x 3 area, along with various other bonuses which are easy to spot since they don't match the other pieces on the board. For example the screenshot above shows the horizontal blast which looks like this:
Simple complete the lines around powerups and you can raise your score and defeat levels at a faster pace.
The game also offers a "campaign mode" which leads the users through different levels "throughout Egypt" basically you must complete one level then using the game map choose the next location to continue on your journey. The actual gameplay is the same in this mode, but it does help offer a "goal" to your random gameplay.
My favorite type of gameplay however was the "Survival Mode" this mode gave me extra points for each set of gems I destroyed, the more points I racked up the longer I could play and the higher my score would become. This mode also includes, BigBang, Extra BigBang and Super BigBang powerup bonuses that offer up to 500 extra points per use which adds a bit of strategy to the scoring aspect of the game aside from just watching the timer.
Finally, aside from showing a high score screen which this game does. You can actually have various profiles for different players, a great option for challenging your friends, family and co-workers to beat your score. Just click on an empty profile and enter your player name to get started!
Jewellust isn't the type of game you're going to download from the Android Market and go "wow this is groundbreaking" however it does offer a few additions over bejeweled that should please fans of the original. For example the ability to create profiles and play survival and campaign modes are all great additions to the game that kept me amused for longer than my typical bejeweled gameplay.
Definitely a fun game worth the download, I recommend it to all of our readers.